


Unexpected Shelter

by coolbreezemage



Series: Three Words Prompts [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Huddling For Warmth, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:48:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25230403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolbreezemage/pseuds/coolbreezemage
Summary: “shelter, arrogant, temperature” - (Leonie/Lorenz, post-timeskip)Lorenz and Leonie are caught in a storm during a patrol mission.
Relationships: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Leonie Pinelli
Series: Three Words Prompts [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810291
Comments: 7
Kudos: 54





	Unexpected Shelter

In some ways, Leonie thought, guiding her horse towards a fork in the trail, this was very much like their Academy days. The Professor had set them a task, and they would complete it. In others, it was more different than she could ever have imagined. She glanced back toward the snow-dusted ruins at the outskirts of the town of Garreg Mach and shivered. People had lived there once, and Edelgard’s forces had chased them away, crushed their homes, enlisted their children to fight in a treasonous war. 

“Is there something on your mind?” a voice beside her said. She turned to find Lorenz looking at her with concern written across his angular face. 

“I’m fine,” she said. She wasn’t about to tell  _ him _ anything. She spurred her horse a few paces ahead and sighed. That was one thing she still couldn’t decide. Had he changed? She couldn’t completely bring herself to imagine he wasn’t still the same arrogant fool she’d suffered through classes with. But she remembered the handkerchief still tucked away in her too-many-times-patched bag, thought of the honest pain in his voice when he spoke of the struggles the people of the Alliance and all of Fodlan faced… 

She shook her head, and then had to adjust her hood to try and keep the snow from going down her neck. This wasn’t the time for pointless meanderings. They had a scouting run to finish, and a storm to evade. “Come on, let’s get this done before we’re stuck out here all night.” 

She doubted they’d find anyone. Even the most daring of bandits or scouts would have sought shelter by now. There was nothing to steal with everyone off the roads, and the snow filling the air made studying the monastery's fortifications all but impossible.

It wasn’t long before Lorenz was at her side again. “Leonie… have I offended you? I beg you to tell me, so I might improve my behavior…” 

He wasn’t going to make this easy, was he? “You’re fine,” she said. She couldn’t bear that hurt puppy look. “I was just thinking about the town. People are having such a hard time getting supplies. In weather like this they can’t get through with the roads ruined, and half the time the Imperials steal it all anyway.”

“It is a terrible thing,” Lorenz said, grave and proud. “But we may finally find ourselves in a position to change the tide of this war for the better.”

He still looked so damned elegant, even covered in snow. “I hope you’re right,” Leonie said, and spurred her horse forward so she didn’t have to keep looking at him.

They continued on, the storm at their backs worsening with every step. At last, as they were passing through the ruins of a forest outpost, Lorenz reached out to calm his anxious mount. Leonie slowed hers beside him.

“It would be too great a risk,” he said, serious and quiet, “to go any further in this weather. We should wait for a break in the snow.”

Why did he have to be sensible? “Yeah, I think that's about right,” Leonie said. “We can camp here. It’ll be cold, but we can manage it.” At least, she could manage it. She doubted Lorenz had ever spent any time in the wild in his life except for the battle camps they’d set up during Academy missions, and those had always been well-appointed. 

They tied the horses under the patchwork roof of a building missing two of its walls, with just enough structure remaining to keep it mostly out of the wind. If she’d been on her own, she’d have stayed beside her mount for warmth and protection, but she wasn’t on her own, and sleeping in a barn was yet another thing she was certain Lorenz would never stoop to considering, even if the alternative wasn’t all that different.

“You stay there tonight, and we’ll find you a nice warm stable tomorrow, all right?” she told the horse. It flicked an ear at her. “I get it, you’re not happy. I’m freezing my tits off too.” She gave the horse a last scratch on the neck and headed back to where Lorenz was waiting at the cracked wall. 

“I found the remains of a smaller outbuilding nearby,” he reported. “Likely used for storage. I believe it will serve our needs tonight.”

He led her across the field to a wreck of a building she must have missed on first glance. Maybe he wasn’t as bad a scout as she’d feared. Whatever had been stored in the once-a-shed was long gone, and the door had rotted half away, leaving gaping holes for the wind and snow to enter. But it was shelter enough for the few hours they needed.

“You gotta make the most of a shit situation,” she said as she settled down against the rot-mottled wall. I just wish we’d packed some blankets...” But wishing was for fools, and she hadn’t trained beside knights and hunters just to whine about her situation and not do anything to get through it. 

Lorenz was looking at her again. 

“What?” If he was going to complain about her swearing...

He hesitated, which probably didn’t bode well for what he was about to say. “Leonie. If you are chilled, I will offer myself-”

Oh no, she wasn’t going to humor that sort of suggestion. “Nope, I’m not about to let you put your hands all over me.” She snorted. “Besides, you’re too skinny for it to do any good.”

His face fell. Again. “I assure you I did not intend anything… inappropriate.” Of course he didn’t. He probably couldn’t do anything inappropriate if he tried. That was the problem. 

“I know.” She decided to change the topic. It might help to keep their minds off the cold, at least. She searched through her bag. “We’ll be missing dinner. Luckily, I’m always prepared. I’ve got some nuts and jerky, if your oh-so-noble tongue will accept it…”

He didn’t reply. When Leonie turned back, he was in the middle of taking off his coat. “No!” she exclaimed. How many times did she have to say it? “I can take care of myself. I don’t need any pampering. Save your gentleman act for Hilda.”

He blinked at her. “I was about to propose we use it to block the entrance and keep the wind out.”

“Oh. Uh, that’s a good idea, actually.” Huh. Maybe he had some brains after all. “But won’t you be cold?”

“I shall bear it. It will only be for a night.” He finished adjusting the makeshift curtain and sat down at the back of the room, a perfectly respectable distance away from Leonie. Probably to the exact inch. She’d never read any etiquette books, so she didn’t know for sure. “There are many who suffer far worse.” 

She couldn’t argue with that. She dumped half the nuts into her hand and passed Lorenz the bag. The two of them ate without talking, listening to the wind roar outside their crumbling shelter and thinking of their friends back at the warm hearths of Garreg Mach. 

She woke from half-drowsing against the rough wall to darkened skies outside. The wind was still going just as fierce as before, but from what she could see the snow was coming down in flakes, not clumps, which was a definite improvement. She turned to check on her partner. 

Lorenz was awake, and shivering. She wanted to ignore it, she really did. It was probably the best option for both of their dignity. But she had always cared more for practicality than dignity.

She sighed and shuffled over to sit beside him. He looked up in surprise. “Are you well?” he asked. “If I can assist you…”

She snorted a laugh. “I’m fine. I’m not the one missing a coat.” Typical Lorenz, unable to accept that  _ he _ might be the one in need of aid instead of the beneficent provider of it to others. “What was it you said?” She affected a haughty tone she’d learned well from imitating him behind his back to the other Golden Deer. “ _ If you are chilled, I will offer myself… _ ” 

“I would not insist you put yourself to any indignity,” he started, before she put an end to that by pressing herself against his shoulder and draping her coat over the two of them.

“I’m offering. You look like you need it.”

Lorenz was silent for a few moments. Just when she thought she’d scandalized him into losing his voice entirely, he smiled. “Thank you, Leonie,” he said. 

“Just for tonight. This doesn’t mean anything more, you got that?” A reminder to herself as much as to him. It would be a terrible, terrible idea to fall for him, because as far as she knew, he still needed to marry a wealthy noblewoman to keep up his family name and fortune and whatever else people like that had to deal with…

“I understand. I would not presume more. But I am grateful nonetheless.”

Leonie fell asleep to the sounds of his quiet breath and the faraway wind outside.

Maybe she should have been more surprised that she woke in the peaceful snow-draped morning to find them lying half on top of each other on the floor of the old shed, but somehow it didn’t surprise her at all. Still, she made sure to untangle herself from the embrace before Lorenz woke, and replaced her coat on his shoulders with his own. 

Maybe she liked him more than she wanted to admit. But he didn’t need to know that yet. 


End file.
